Comments from Hong-My Basrai About Opening Night.

The simplicity of the stage is as beguiling as the white handkerchief in the hand of a magician.  On the left sits a black stove furnace, and a few steps from it, an easel.  The pianist in his black outfit slides into his chair and merges as one with his instrument, quiet for the moment and seemingly lifeless. 

Once the light dims, bathing the audience in a shadowy darkness, the center stage comes to life in bright, flooded light and fast music.  Marcello, the painter, in brown shirt and checkered red scarf, is seen absorbed in front of his easel.  In a corner, a few steps higher and to the right of the stage, is Rodolfo, the poet, shivering under a blanket. 

Thus, Act I of Puccini’s La Bohème opens to transport the audience of Repertory Opera Company (ROC) into another time and place far away from the wooden benches of First Christian Church in Pomona.  The dissociation with reality is immediate, for at once, the audience is thrust into a world of lyrical communication in lovely but incomprehensible Italian—without subtitles.  Those who attend with little preparation are baffled at first by the strange words that Rodolfo and Marcello pass back and forth to one another in a throaty tenor.  What are they singing, shivering thus in an imagined coldness? 

The uninitiated to opera arrive like tourists in a strange land.  We try to interpret the characters’ emotions by the rise and dip of their voices, gestures and facial expressions.  Slowly, steadily, the music lures us into their drafty Latin Quarter loft.  We follow Mimi, the beautiful Mimi and her crystalline voice, a candle trembling in her hand.  Her soprano voice soars in distress.  She does not find her key but Rodolfo’s hand instead; and he, bellowing, “Che gelida manina...,”—“how cold is your hand,” is thankful for the darkness and Mimi’s chilled hand.

Opera, the intriguing performing art that brings love, death, sword fight, and laughter to the multitude, is like coffee.  One learns to appreciate the bitter taste one sip at a time.  In La Bohème, the arrival of the toy vendor Parpignol and the merry group dance in Act II is the spoonful of sugar that improves the taste of this exotic cup.  Musette’s flirtatious entrance with “Quando Me'n Vo'” is the rich cream that flavors the dark liquid and sweetens the untrained tongue.

ROC’s simplicity is the magic under the white handkerchief that, once lifted, transforms the experience of the first operagoers.  Once the refined taste of this rich cup of roasted bean is acquired, addicted, one would go back for more.

 Comment provided by Hong-My Basrai.

Posted by RepOperaCo BLOG at 5/12/2011 8:44 AM
Categories: uncategorized
 

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